United States

We describe a suite of experiments and computations with an adjustable “challenge level” to engage upper-division undergraduate physics and engineering students for periods ranging from two laboratory sessions to semester-long research projects. The end product is a tunable optical sensor for differentiating between fluids with even tiny variations in refractive index: e.g., 1.332 for deionized water vs. 1.334 for 0.5 wt% saline solution. It revolves around a thin gold film on a glass prism coupled to a microfluidic cell. The surface-plasmon-resonance (SPR) phenomenon excited by the incident laser at the gold-fluid interface is exquisitely sensitive to subtle changes in the near-surface environment. Crucially, it also immerses students in the rich physics of metal nano-optics and evanescent waves, in constructing precision optofluidic setups, and in developing analytical (Fresnel equations) and numerical (e.g., finite-element method) computational models to aid in their understanding and engineering optimization of the SPR sensor.

AAPT SM 21

Surface-Plasmon-Resonance Sensing in the Advanced Physics Laboratory

finite-element method

fresnel equations

sensors

evanescent waves

plasmonics

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM 20

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. 

poster

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

Listen to internationally known plenary speakers, attend sessions, workshops, and special activities. Attending the virtual summer meeting is an excellent opportunity to share your expertise and learn from and network with leaders in the field.

Please log in with your AAPT account or register for the event if you haven't already.

If you are registered please note that you need to be logged in with your AAPT email / credentials in order to get access.

The abstract nature of electricity makes it a particularly difficult subject for learners to form scientific understandings of the core concepts. One possibility of making such abstract concepts more accessible is using analogical teaching methods. In light of this, a syllabus was developed focusing on the analogy between the movement of charge due to potential difference and the movement of air due to pressure difference. Trials of this syllabus in German grammar schools show a significant improvement in learning gains when compared with traditional approaches. Learners’ qualitative understanding is scaffolded using helpful language, color-coding the electric potential and links to familiar, everyday experiences. The materials used in the previous study have been translated into English and adjusted for use in public schools. Furthermore, additional materials to help structure lessons for less experienced and non-subject-specialist teaching staff are included in lesson packs. All materials will be made available free of charge.

Material Development for Teaching Electric Circuits with the Pressure Analogy

We conducted research on student difficulties and used it as a guide to develop, validate and evaluate a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) on Larmor precession of spin to help students learn about time-dependence of expectation values in quantum mechanics. The QuILT builds on students' prior knowledge and strives to help them develop a good knowledge structure of relevant concepts. It adapts visualization tools to help students develop intuition about these topics and focuses on helping students integrate qualitative and quantitative understanding. Here, we summarize the development, validation and in-class evaluation. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial on Larmor Precession of Spin

In quantum mechanics, representations of quantum operators in the position or momentum representation is an important concept for students to learn. However, many students have difficulties writing operators in the position and momentum representations. We investigated student difficulties with quantum operators in the position or momentum representation in the context of Dirac notation so that we can use them to develop learning tools such as a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a robust understanding of these concepts. Here we describe the investigation of student difficulties. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Student understanding of quantum mechanical observables and corresponding operators

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is an instructional strategy involving feedback from students on pre-lecture activities in order to design in-class activities to build on the continuing feedback from students. We investigated the effectiveness of a JiTT approach, which included in-class concept tests using clickers in an upper-division quantum mechanics course. We analyzed student performance on pre-lecture reading quizzes, in-class clicker questions answered individually, and clicker questions answered after group discussion, and compared those performances with open-ended retention quizzes administered after all instructional activities on the same concepts. In general, compared to the reading quizzes, student performance improved when individual clicker questions were posed after lectures that focused on student difficulties found via electronic feedback. The performance on the clicker questions after group discussion following individual clicker question responses also showed improvement. We discuss some possible reasons for improved performance at various stages. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Just-in-Time Teaching and Peer Instruction in a Quantum Mechanics Course

In this paper we offer updated versions of two 1970's-vintage open world experiments (one on acceleration, and the other on Poisson statistics). We the discuss prospects for expanding these to a wider range of topics, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities for giving students a more active role in experimental design, and scientific reporting, with help from now widely available electronic technologies.

Bringing new life to open-world physics lab experiments

In support of movements like Black Lives Matter, #ShutdownAcademia, and #ShutdownSTEM, I knew I needed to address social justice issues in my introductory physics classroom as well as increase my efforts to ensure a safe, equitable, and inclusive space for my undergraduate students. Due to the ongoing pandemic, these changes would need to happen in a primarily remote learning environment. This poster will explore the strategies and technology I utilized over the past academic year to create a more supportive, accessible, and inclusive remote learning environment for my calculus-based introductory physics courses. I will be sharing feedback from students and results of formal assessments looking at changes in students’ science identity responses over the course of the year. I will also share my thoughts regarding how a well-designed remote learning environment may provide even more productive discussions on tough topics such as social justice than similar in-person environments.

Exploring Ways to Make a Remote Physics Classroom More Inclusive

Real-time 3D Object Tracking for High School and Undergraduate Physics Lori Shaaban, Akash Prasad, Zane OthmanGomez,Vrushank Gunjur, Ralf Widenhorn Physics lab courses typically focus on analyzing one-dimensional data. Using two-dimensional setups can be time consuming and introduce parallax errors. While one-dimensional data collection is adequate for linear motion, it is now possible to quantitatively analyze more complex systems by setting up a 3D camera. At Portland State University we worked with a group of high school students to develop a python program that tracks and graphs objects in real-time in three dimensions using a Intel RealSense D435i camera system. We created a mix of data analysis challenges and laboratory investigations designed to synthesize student’s prior skills and concept knowledge as well as explore the nature of new situations through kinesthetic learning and optional programming. The poster will describe a set of activities analyzing projectiles as well as a ball on a string moving in a 3D space outside a single plane with a focus on momentum and rotations.

Real-time 3D Object Tracking for High School and Undergraduate Physics

Breaking free from the traditional “cart on a ramp” problem, this session presents a variety of real-world, aviation related, physics-based problems. Focused on the general aviation aircraft, both single-engine and multi-engine, the problems expose the student to application of physics in aviation. The problems span a range of difficulties from simple trigonometry and simple unit conversion problems to more complicated thermodynamic and forces on an airplane problem. The problems come from the aviation world, including examples from aircraft instrument approaches, aircraft turbocharger operations, aircraft drag force in various flying configurations, and asymmetrical thrust in multi-engine airplanes. These problems are targeted to the student in a first year, algebra-based physics course such as AP® Physics 1 and AP® Physics 2.

Real-world Problems for AP® Physics 1 and AP® Physics 2

In the switch to remote instruction at the start of the pandemic, we built off of a framework introduced by Abigail Mechtenberg at the University of Notre Dame. Students could choose whether to conduct an experiment from the lab manual used for in-person instruction or to deviate from that manual and conduct their own investigation. At the conclusion of each experiment, the students submitted a formal lab report. Instructional resources focused on supporting students on developing hypotheses, designing experiment, and on analyzing, interpreting, and communicating their results. An assessment of student attitudes, measured with the E-CLASS, showed a greater shift toward expert-like attitudes than we had previously measured for non-majors labs before the pandemic. We show the results of the assessment and their connection to agency and lab reports.

How agency and lab reports affected attitudes in remote labs

Showcased here (1 of 2 posters) are the details of Kirchhoff's two Laws of Electricity presented via spiral teaching in terms of voltage loops which are scaled per charge and current splitting scaled per time as, respectively, applications of the Conservation of Energy and Mass to students in a way that emphasizes these concepts and further buttresses these laws of physics as universal. Possible student misunderstandings and updated useful suggestions for teachers are included. This poster builds on the oral presentation “Spiraling Conservation of Energy/Mass in Introductory Physics: Kirchhoff to Bernoulli” also at this conference.

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